MULTISCALE/MULTIPHYSICS SIMULATION OF WIND TURBINES USING ARBITRARY HYBRID TURBULENCE MODEL AND FULLY COUPLED FSI

Abstract

This paper suggests performing multi-scale and multi-physics simulations of wind turbine analysis using numerical approximations and mathematical equations. Multi-fidelity numerical simulations are becoming very common, with the importance of renewable energy increasing and demanding wind turbines. To achieve this, researchers have turned to simulation and modeling approaches to improve the turbines’ performance. This study elaborates further on the advantages and limitations of using an Arbitrary Hybrid Turbulence Model (AHTM) for the simulation of a wind turbine flow and demonstrates how fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis helps to improve the simulated physical behavior of a wind turbine. On the other hand, the quantitative approach consists of various types of numerical simulations and mathematical equations; it emerged as an indispensable one for the methodology to get reliable and accurate answers. Furthermore, it is a well-established fact to a great measure that the wind turbine design community lacks good-quality analytical resources. This research seeks to address this critical need. Here we apply a new arbitrary hybrid turbulence model (AHTM) under the DAFoam software, an OpenFOAM derivative, to the NREL Phase VI wind turbine in order to assess its performance against the conventional URANS model. The AHTM model demonstrated superior accuracy compared to the URANS model. On the other hand, mesh quality improvement, higher order schemes, and aeroelastic features of the wind turbine would further add to the accuracy of VLES and URANS models, and thus enable an advanced FSI analysis of the wind turbine. Secondly, the VLES capability in DAFoam was tested under two cases, the PitzDaily and the MACH wing, as a way of applying them for verification of capability. The FSI is implemented through the new fluid and solid solvers interfacing with an MPhys-based solution.